Prologue

I hate this feeling. Like I'm here but I'm not. A single moment of distinct loneliness and vulnerability that creeps out from the dark. Calling to me, pleading for my attention to which I starve it. Yet it grows and grows, until eventually without word or notice I find myself staring once more out into an open world.

Crisp sounds like rice over parchment resound. I gazed at the flowers that once stood prominent over the vast greenery. A faint warmth hovered over, lulling my heavy eye lids closed.

And then a heavy thump breaks from my chest.

The sounds are gone and so is the world. Set ablaze from all corners and I remain staring towards the deepest ends of this fallen land.

What was it all worth? I wondered.

Was it all for freedom? Perhaps in pursuit to protect or gain love? For some it was an escape to a path of uniqueness.

Do those three small words set apart the average person, and what god or being chooses to bestow them? No. Rather what devil and bastard takes away those qualities?

Robbing even the lives of an infant, leaving each person to rot in the filth that was their lives. A cruel misgiving that could never be reversed or discarded.

The tainted victim's woes ignored and overshadowed by those blindly blessed.

While the broken remain forced to go through hell for the sake of others. For the purpose of finding those three meanings.

"No longer," my lips curled over to reveal a row of black and green teeth. Smoke twirled around the my abdomen, trailing a purple essence that twisted even my own nose.

I gazed onto the distant glint of fiery lights. From the crevices of the ash fallen hills came a resonant sound. The incoherent cries filled my mind.

"No longer!" I cackled. My hands scrapping the dirt as it formed a fist. "I will be your pawn no more! Kill me, rid me of this foul existence!"

For a moment there seemed to be a hovering silence, the chaotic sounds of war silenced. The air held a chilling breeze despite the blazing flames. My gaze remained fixed to the clouded sky. The silence gnawing at me, I gritted my teeth till they drew blood, but still I waited. Hoping for a response, but there was only a quiet passage of time.

A tear streaking my cheek as I whispered out, "please."

And then the sky gave a scintillating blaze of light that fell above my body. Each part of me disappearing into glimmering streams. A last smile crossed my face before also vanishing.

In my place was a floating text box.

•••[The final Hero of planet Altic fallen, proceed forward] •••

To be free, unique and loved what does that mean?

In the end I never found out.